I have cynanchum laeve. Monarchs lay eggs on it sometimes, and I've raised a good many caterpillars to maturity on the leaves, but it takes a lot more of them than it does the regular milkweeds that have a lot of the white stuff - cynanchum laeve leaves don't. The flowers smell strongly of coconut oil, and they're visited by many different types of insects, plus occasional butterflies, mainly hairstreaks. It's a bit invasive, but worth having even if you have to pull up a stray volunteer every now and then.
I've never grown any of the others, but I imagine they're about the same.
Sherry

I have been searching for the climbing milkweeds for years
only to find some are so close to extinction while others are growing wild in someone's yard. Others won't trade seeds for they fear it is an invasive plant or vine.

The C.Laeve I do grow and love as the flowers smell like Honey, I figure if the bee's love it and the butterflies love it the vine can't be all bad...just wish I could find it in other colors. I hear there is a purple, a yellow and other colors out there but to my dismay I can't find them!!

Carol

I to am having a tuff time finding this vine I have the Morrenia Odorata (stangler vine) but want the honey vine Milkweed vine if anyone has any seeds would love some Cynanchum laeve they are native here just cant find any.

The following plant names appear in the FAQ for monarch hostplants. Most are mentioned above but I offer this to complete or correct the names. Perhaps you will find more milkweed vine possibilities in this list:

Common names and their combinations appear after the Latin.

Cynanchum angustifolium (Gulf Coast swallowwart, milkweed vine)

Cynanchum laeve (synonyms: Gonolobus laevis, C. sinaloense, Ampelamus albidus) ([sand, blue, honey]vine; [honeyvine, climbing]milkweed; angle pod, vine milkweed)

Marsdenia Species (example species, descriptions follow)(M. cundurango (Cotton root); M. zimapanica(Mex), large climbers, latex sap)

Matelea reticulata ([pearl, net-vein, netted]milkvine; milkvine, pearl milkweed, green milkweed vine)

Morrenia odorata FL ([strangler, milkweed]vine; tasi, Florida milkweed vine, latex plant)
Sarcostemma clausum (white twinevine, white milkweed vine, viney milkweed, whitevine, narrow-leaf milkweed vine)

Sarcostemma crispum TX (wavy-leaf milkweed vine, wavyleaf twinevine, wavyleaf climbing milkweed, wavyleaf milkvine)

Thanks Larry
I fear even though with your help I won't get them been looking with correct botanical names and common
names for over 5 years still nothing. Only a few
sites offer some like Mikania scandens and also like butterfly farms but they said their crop didn't grow as fast as inticipated.
So they can't offer it for sale this year. You would
think more people in butterfly farming and rearing
of the ones in captivity would want to have these on
hand too..

thanks for all your help
Carol

Is it possible to start Honeyvine from seeds from a seed pod? If so, what do I have to do to the seeds before planting them, if anything?

I winter-sowed Cynanchum laeve this past winter. Received the seeds in a trade, they look similar to other milkweed seeds. Sowed on Feb 26th, they sprouted on April 26th. My records do not indicate if they require cold stratification or not, but they germinated very well with cold strat.

The seedlings were very vigorous growers and started to twine on themselves, so they were planted out in early July. The plants are still very small however. I expect they are establishing roots and that they will grow much bigger next year.

Angie83, I can't remember if I have extra seeds of these or not. If so, I'd be happy to send you some for SASBE (didn't we do a trade last year?). At this point, it may be too late to sow them for this year.

Here is what the seedlings looked like just before planting -

{{gwi:452668}}

I have about 4 varieties of milkweed vines. I'd love to find more but have been unsuccessful. So far my favorite is the Tweedia (Oxypetalum caeruleum). I also have Araujia sericifera (Cruel vine) which is in the same family but I don't know if it's a monarch host plant. The monarchs haven't bothered with any of the vining milkweeds but I've seen so many fewer monarchs then normal this season.
Karyn

Oh my goodness! I had to chuckle reading your posts. Cynanchum laeve is a bonefide invasive weed in my yard. I leave some of it for the monarchs. Before I got "into" butterflies, I wondered how I had monarch chrysalises on my fence and tomato plants since I didn't have any milkweed in my yard, LOL. Then once I realized what I had it became clear. Here monarchs love the stuff. I read a journal abstract a while ago that said it may be an important host plant for monarchs since it is so common in some parts. If you want some pods feel free to email me and I will try to send you some.
-Elisabeth

Would anyone have this one

Matelea reticulata ([pearl, net-vein, netted]milkvine; milkvine, pearl milkweed, green milkweed vine)

Carol

Not sure if you are still looking after 2.5 years, but, georgiavines has a very large variety of milkweed vine seeds.